A renewed commitment towards safety and reducing the risk of violence took place Wednesday with the signing of the Community Threat Assessment and Support Protocol.
The protocol had previously been signed a year earlier on March 1 by Living Sky and Light of Christ school divisions as well as various local and provincial agencies.
This year, the protocol added four new signatories: the Battlefords First Nations High School Joint Board of Education which includes Sakewew High School; Treaty Six Education Council which includes all the First Nations schools in the North Battleford area; the Conseil des ecoles fransakoises; and Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology.
According to Kelvin Colliar, superintendant of learning at Light of Christ Catholic Schools, this was described not as a re-signing, but rather a “second edition” of the protocols.
“What we looked for this year for the second edition was to add on other organizations that we felt would be of benefit to our protocols.”
The existing signatories to the protocol include: Living Sky School Division No. 202; Light of Christ Catholic Schools; North West College; City of North Battleford – North Battleford Fire Department; Battlefords RCMP; the provincial Ministry of Justice, Corrections and Policy; the Ministry of Social Services, Child and Family Services; Catholic Family Services of the Battlefords; Prairie North Health Region, Mental Health and Addictions Services and Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions Services; and Kanaweyimik Child and Family Services.
With the addition of the four new signatories, “all the educational institutions in the Battlefords are covered,” said Colliar.
All the partners signed the agreement at Western Development Museum on Wednesday morning. The signings took place prior to a training session involving Kevin Cameron, an expert in threat assessment and trauma response who has conducted extensive training sessions on the subject.
The goal of the protocol is to prevent violence and promote safety in schools and the community.
According to Nancy Schultz, superintendant of student services at Living Sky School Division, the protocols will “essentially identify students who are at risk for harming themselves or others. It’ll identify the level of risk the student is at, at that moment in time, and then as a group we’ll determine what level of interventions that we need to provide, depending on what level of risk they’re displaying.”
According to Colliar, “rather than waiting to be reactive to situations, what the protocols do is allow us to be proactive to make sure that we’re looking for baseline changes in student behavior or situations that students are in so that we can be proactive in supporting them and getting them supports they need. Therein lies the benefit of having all the organizations involved that we do.”
